Curiosities of Science. 105 



and he counts the cycles of time and of life which they disclose. 

 Abridged from the North-British Review, No. 9. 



THE GEOLOGY OF ENGLAND 



is more interesting than that of other countries, because our 

 island is in a great measure an epitome of the globe ; and the 

 observer who is familiar with our strata, and the fossil remains 

 which they include, has not only prepared himself for similar 

 inquiries in other countries, but is already, as it were, by an- 

 ticipation, acquainted with what he is to find there. Trans- 

 actions of the Geological Society. 



PROBABLE ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. 



The proposed construction of a submarine tunnel across the 

 Straits of Dover has led M. Boue. For. Mem, Geol. Soc., to 

 point out the probability that the English Channel has not 

 been excavated by water-action only ; but owes its origin to 

 one of the lines of disturbance which have fissured this portion 

 of the earth's crust : and taking this view of the case, the fis- 

 sure probably still exists, being merely filled with compara- 

 tively loose material, so as to prove a serious obstacle to any 

 attempt made to drive through it a submarine tunnel. Pro- 

 ceedings of the Geological Society. 



HOW BOULDERS ARE TRANSPORTED TO GREAT HEIGHTS. 



Sir Roderick Murchison has shown that in Russia, when 

 the Dwina is at its maximum height, and penetrates into the 

 chinks of its limestone banks, when frozen and expanded 

 it causes disruptions of the rock, the entanglement of stony 

 fragments in the ice. In remarkable spring floods, the stream 

 so expands that in bursting it throws up its icy fragments to 

 15 or 20 feet above the stream ; and the waters subsiding, 

 these lateral ice-heaps melt away, and leave upon the bank the 

 rifled and angular blocks as evidence of the highest ice-mark. 

 In Lapland, M. Bohtlingk assures us that he has found large 

 granitic boulders weighing several tons actually entangled and 

 suspended, like birds'-nests, in the branches of pine-trees, at heights 

 of 30 or 40 feet above the summer level of the stream !* 



* Mr. Hopkins supports his Glacial Theory by regarding the Waves of Trans- 

 lation, investigated by Mr. Scott Kussell, as furnishing a sufficient moving power 

 for the transportation of large rounded boulders, and the formation of drifted 

 gravel. When these waves of translation are produced by the sudden elevation 

 of the sin-face of the sea, the whole mass of water from the surface to the bottom 

 of the ocean moves onward, and becomes a mechanical agent of enormous power. 

 Following up this view. Mr. Hopkins has shown that " elevations of continental 

 masses of only 50 feet each, and from beneath an ocean having a depth of be- 

 tween 300 and 400 feet, would cause the most powerful divergent waves, which 

 could transport large boulders to great distances." 



